The High Road
by garretelliot
Summary: This is my take on why Garret did it. WARNING spoilers for Jump, Push, Fall


Title- The High Road  
Author- garrettelliot  
Disclaimer- If I owned this show, the season finale would have ended very differently.  
Summary- This is a huge spoiler for the season finale; so if you haven't seen it, do not read this.  
A/N- This is my take on why he did it. A big shout out to jtbwriter for finding all my mistakes before you guys do. Jules, you rock babe.   
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"You always take the high road, don't you Garret?"

Jack Slokum's words reverberated in Garret's mind as he watched his team staring at him in disbelief. The elevator doors closed, shutting out the sight of his 'family', who now believed that he could hide evidence knowing it could prevent justice from being served.

The high road? Yeah, in this case that meant sacrificing himself for a friend. Even if that friend had played him. Leo Gelber had been his mentor as well as his boss. Garret wasn't willing to give Leo up to Slokum and the governor, the man was dying and Garret wasn't going to see his last days spent dealing with this shit. Even if he had to lose his job and the respect of his staff to do it.

He had known this might happen as soon as Slokum said 'Sylvia Moreau'. Jack seemed surprised that he remembered a twenty-year-old case, it was the one he'd never forgotten. That one pivotal moment on which his adult life was balanced. How could he forget?

_ "Macy."_ _Leo Gelber growling voice sounded through the halls._

_'Shit, what the hell does the old man want now?' Garret thought, turning back from the elevators. 'I was almost out the door. Maggie is going to kill me. She's been planning this night out for a week and the babysitter won't be available again until next Monday.'_

_He knocked on the open door of the chief ME's office.  
_

"_You called me, Dr. Gelber?" He asked._

_"Sylvia Moreau. Anything unusual?" Gelber asked._

_"Well I've got a torn piece of sash that I've lifted a print off of, I've got a lab assistant running a check for a match. But everything on the scene says suicide as do the injuries." Garret wondered why Gelber was interested in a probable suicide._

_Gelber closed the door and turned to Garret. "Macy, The print is unimportant. If the cause of death is suicide, then we don't need anything else. We don't need to know every detail of the private lives of the decedents to do our job."_

_"But, Sir, if someone else was present then it may not have been suicide." Garret interjected. "Don't we owe it to the family to explore all possibilities? The truth is the most important thing, isn't it?"_

_"Garret, you're still pretty new to this job. Let me give you a piece of advice, the truth can be subjective, we search for the facts. The forensically supported facts. Leave 'truth' to the philosophy students." Gelber put an arm over Garret shoulder. "You're doing a good job, son. You are every bit as curious and thorough as I could hope for but sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Do any of the injuries suggest anything other than suicide?"  
_

"_No sir, but…"_

_Gelber interrupted. "Then why worry about a fingerprint that could have come from the decedent or her parents or even the lady that does her laundry?" Leo sat and leaned back in his chair. "A good ME knows where to push and where to back off. Don't waste any more time on this one, Garret. Go take that pretty little wife of yours out to dinner and write the report up tomorrow. I'll expect it on my desk by ten am."_

_"Goodnight, Dr Gelber." Garret knew a dismissal when he heard one. He also knew a threat and one had just been delivered. Pursue this obvious suicide to satisfy his curiosity and he'd be looking for a new job._

_He considered the evidence on the way home and still couldn't see anything but suicide as the cause of death. Maybe Dr Gelber was right, this was just curiosity._

_Garret had dropped it until three days later when the lab assistant brought him the fingerprint match._

_"Here's the results on that fingerprint you wanted run, Dr. Macy. Sorry it took so long."_

_Garret looked down at the report and headed straight for Dr, Gelber's office. "Dr. Gelber, I have something on the Sylvia Moreau case that might interest you. I forgot to stop the fingerprint search and you're going to be glad I did."_

_"You found the print belongs to Terrence Duvall." Gelber said._

_"Yes, sir, but how did you know?" Garret asked beginning to think perhaps he'd been had._

_Gelber didn't look up from the papers on his desk. "Joe Lancaster came to see me with Duvall the night before I spoke to you. It seems the young Duvall was seeing Miss Moreau. The relationship was a secret; he's getting married next month. He'd told Sylvia Moreau they were over and according to Joe she accepted it. But they both noticed she seemed depressed for the last week so Duvall went to check on her Friday night. He found her lying on the rocks and panicked. That's why I wanted to know your finding. If you thought it was suicide, all well and good, but if you had doubts then we could investigate further." Leo Gelber looked up at Garret. "I didn't want to lay any of this on you, Garret. I'd hoped I could handle this quietly as a favor to my old friend's protégé. Can you handle it or do you want me to sign off on the report?"_

_"No sir, I guess since it's obviously a suicide it doesn't make any sense to ruin the guy's life. But what about the fingerprint on the sash? It definitely links this Duvall to the scene." Garret asked._

_"I asked about that; Duvall gave her the robe and she'd worn it for a few weeks while they were still seeing each other. Joe confirmed that Duvall had told him about the gift. Duvall found the fragment on the windowsill and picked it up. When he looked out and saw Miss Moreau on the rocks below the house he carried it with him to check on her, he believes he may have dropped it in shock at finding her dead." Gelber answered._

Garret had believed Leo. He had signed the autopsy report; the case receded to the back of his mind for a while. Leo told him he'd stored the fragment, the scene photos showing it and the first autopsy report separately from the rest, to protect Garret.

Then about eight years later he'd discovered that Leo had owed Lancaster for a cover up involving a botched investigation and some mistakes on an autopsy five years before Garret had been hired. The guilty party had been tried and convicted but the information could cost Gelber his job and his reputation.

Garret considered coming clean but Leo convinced him that since justice had been served, it would not be helpful to anyone. Leo had agreed to take the job as Coroner and therefore no longer be involved in autopsies. Garret resolved then and there to never again be satisfied with less than the truth.

Leo was wrong about their job. They were there to speak for the dead and to do that they must know all of the truth. He'd pulled the Sylvia Moreau file and discovered that the facts still indicated suicide, but the case stuck with him after that, making him more determined to always learn the truth no matter what. He'd kept the original report in his office after that, reviewing it from time to time and questioning his original findings. Every time he came back to suicide.

When Jack Slokum told him to gather what he needed and leave he took the report with him. Knowing Slokum wouldn't look beyond the obvious he felt safe continuing to keep the secret he shared with Leo and Duvall. Not that he gave a damn about Terrence Duvall, but Leo had maybe six months left, he was tired from the latest round of chemo and Garret would protect him as best he could. Time enough to tell the whole truth later, if it needed to be told at all.

Then Slokum had done the one thing Garret never expected, he'd tapped Jordan to assist him on the investigation. Garret knew that unless Jordan came to the knowledge that he'd removed evidence, she'd try to help him and put herself in the same position Leo had placed him in twenty years ago. He couldn't do that to his best friend so he'd waited for her to show up. While he waited he went to talk to Duvall and discovered that the man was lying to him. Something about the guy just didn't sit quite level. If he'd talked to him twenty years ago Sylvia Moreau would have had justice and he might have had a very different life.

When Jordan pounded on his door he knew the time had come to set things straight, but he still couldn't put Leo through the stress of a full inquiry, so he gave Jordan the part of the file that pointed to him alone. The information on Leo and Lancaster was sitting in a safe deposit box. There were some things that should never see the light of day.

He just wished he could have explained to Jordan, the hurt and betrayal in her eyes almost had him telling her everything. She would have never let it go. She'd have forced him to clear himself. The woman never could see shades of gray; everything to Jordan was black and white.

He'd once told her that he prided himself on never making decisions from an emotional place. But that's exactly from where every decision regarding his friends came. The love he had for them wasn't something he trusted to transient displays. The expression of those feelings was more real, more concrete, like bringing Jordan home to Boston, arranging for Nigel to stay on a work visa and creating the job of grief counselor for Lily.

This decision had been emotional as well. He could have given up everything and at most been censured and suspended. He chose to reveal only enough to bring justice for Sylvia Moreau and her parents and to cover for his former boss and mentor. He told a lie to make the old man's final weeks uncomplicated by old ghosts and past mistakes.

A lie in the service of justice and friendship; definitely the high road.

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A/N- what do you think guys?


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